VanlyYou looked at ServiceM8 because everyone rates it. Then you found out the full app only runs on iPhone, your labourer has a Samsung, and the pricing page talks about job credits like you run a call centre. This is the post for the UK tradesperson quietly asking whether a ServiceM8 alternative exists that fits a one van business.
Want the office side handled without buying anyone an iPhone? Try Vanly free for 14 days. No card needed to start.
What ServiceM8 gets right
Credit where it is due, because ServiceM8 has earned its reputation.
The field app is probably the slickest of all the job management tools. Job cards carry everything: client details, notes, photos, emails, messages, the lot, and any of your team can pull up the full history from the van. Scheduling changes push to staff automatically. Quoting and invoicing on site works well.
The pricing model is genuinely fair for teams. Every paid plan has unlimited users, so you pay for the work you put through it, not for how many people log in. The free plan is real too: one user, 30 jobs a month, with quoting, invoicing, scheduling and card payments included. A sole trader doing a handful of jobs a week could run on it and pay nothing.
And the certificates story is strong. Electronic forms, compliance certificates, asset service history. If you are a gas engineer or an electrician drowning in paperwork that has to be filed a specific way, this is where ServiceM8 shines.
If your team is on iPhones, you have someone in the office booking work in, and you put a hundred jobs a month through the books, stop reading. ServiceM8 will suit you fine.
The pricing, verified against their UK page
Plenty of comparison sites quote ServiceM8 prices in dollars, from old tiers, or both. These figures come straight from the ServiceM8 UK pricing page, checked September 2026. Prices exclude VAT.
| Plan | Per month | Jobs per month | Users |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | £0 | 30 | 1 |
| Starter | £25 | 50 | Unlimited |
| Growing | £59 | 150 | Unlimited |
| Premium | £119 | 500 | Unlimited |
| Premium Plus | £269 | 1,500+ | Unlimited |
The bit that catches people out is the job credit. Every new job card uses one. Go over your allowance and you get seven days of grace, then a prompt to upgrade. For a busy sole trader hovering around 50 jobs a month, that is the difference between £25 and £59, decided by how good a month you had. Some months you are paying the bigger bill for the privilege of being busy.
SMS is metered too. The free plan charges 5p a text, paid plans include an allowance with an overage fee beyond it. Not a fortune, but worth knowing if your customers live on text.
The iPhone catch
Here is the sentence that sends most UK readers hunting for a ServiceM8 alternative: the full app is iOS only.
There is an Android version called ServiceM8 Lite, and the name is doing honest work. It is built for technicians and subbies to view schedules, see job details and tick checklists. The management side, the bit you actually bought the software for, wants an iPhone. ServiceM8 are upfront about this. They recommend iPhones for field staff and even run an offer to help you buy them.
That is a coherent position for a polished product. It is also a real cost. If you and your team are on Android, the true price of ServiceM8 is the subscription plus a handset upgrade per person. Android is not a niche among UK trades, so for a lot of firms this is where the conversation ends.
The bigger gap: it organises work you already have
Set the handset question aside, because there is a more basic mismatch, and it applies to every job management app, not just this one.
ServiceM8 is built around the job card. A job card exists once somebody has booked work in. It assumes the enquiry already came in, got answered, got qualified, and got entered. In a firm with an office, that somebody is the office.
In a one or two person trade business, that somebody is you, up a ladder. The customer messages three tradespeople from Checkatrade at 9:15am. You see it at half twelve. The maths on what that delay costs is in why UK tradies lose leads to slow replies, and it is not small. No job card ever gets created, because the job went to whoever answered first.
ServiceM8 does have automation for the later stages: booking confirmations, quote follow ups, payment reminders. Useful. But it starts working after the enquiry has been captured and keyed in. The most expensive minutes in a small trade business happen before that, and a job management app is structurally not there for them.
This is the difference in kind between a job app and an AI receptionist. One manages the work you have. The other wins the work in the first place.
If you are still weighing the whole field, we lined all six up with verified prices in the best job management software for UK trades.
ServiceM8 vs Vanly, like for like
Honest table. They win boxes, so does Vanly, and the two products are different shapes.
| ServiceM8 | Vanly | |
|---|---|---|
| Built around | Job cards and scheduling | WhatsApp conversations |
| Replies to new enquiries for you | No | Yes, within 30 seconds |
| Handles missed calls | Phone add on from £15 a month, records and transcribes | Texts the caller back, gets the job details |
| Quotes | Built on site in the app | Voice note in, PDF out |
| Invoice chasing | Automated reminder templates | Chases in your voice through WhatsApp |
| Certificates and compliance forms | Excellent | Not built |
| Scheduling a team | Excellent | Basic calendar |
| Android | Lite app only | Full product, it is just WhatsApp |
| Pricing | £0 to £269 by job volume | £39 flat |
| Free trial | 14 days, no card | 14 days, no card |
The quote workflow difference is worth spelling out. In ServiceM8 you build the quote on site, tapping through the app. With Vanly you speak a voice note as you leave and the PDF arrives back in WhatsApp for approval. The mechanic is in voice notes to invoices. Same output, very different amount of standing in the rain poking a screen.
Who should stick with ServiceM8
No spin, because for a chunk of readers the honest answer is stay put.
Stick with ServiceM8 if you run a team on iPhones and somebody other than you books the work in. The dispatcher model is what it is designed around, and it is very good at it.
Stick with it if certificates are your life. Gas Safe paperwork, electrical compliance, asset service histories for landlords. ServiceM8 handles these properly and Vanly does not do certificates today.
Stick with it if you put 150 or more jobs a month through the business. At that volume the job card discipline pays for itself and the per job pricing is fair.
And if you are a solo operator doing under 30 jobs a month on an iPhone, their free plan is honestly hard to argue with. Use it and pay nothing.
Who should look at a different shape entirely
If you are a one or two person band, on Android, winning work through Checkatrade, WhatsApp and missed calls, then the question is not which job management app. It is whether you need a job management app at all, or whether you need the enquiries answered and the paperwork done.
That was the reasoning behind Vanly, and it is the same argument made in the Tradify comparison and the Powered Now comparison: the dashboard is a place you have to go, and if your day has no slot for it, the system half works. WhatsApp is where your customers already are. The tool might as well live there too.
FAQ
Does ServiceM8 work on Android?
Partly. ServiceM8 Lite for Android lets field staff view schedules, job details and checklists. The full app, including the management features, is iOS only, and ServiceM8 recommends iPhones for anything beyond basic field use.
Is the ServiceM8 free plan actually usable?
Yes, genuinely. One user, 30 jobs a month, with job cards, scheduling, quoting, invoicing and card payments. For a low volume solo operator on an iPhone it is one of the best free tiers in trade software. The limits are the single login and the job cap.
What happens if I go over my ServiceM8 job limit?
You can keep creating jobs for seven days. If your plan resets in that window you carry on, otherwise you are prompted to upgrade to the next tier. Budget for your busiest month, not your average one.
Can I run Vanly and ServiceM8 together?
You can, and a team might: Vanly answering the enquiries and drafting quotes in WhatsApp, ServiceM8 running the job cards and certificates behind it. Most solo trades end up not needing both, because once the enquiry, quote, invoice and chasing are handled, a job card system is more admin than the business has left.
What does Vanly cost compared to ServiceM8?
Vanly is £39 a month flat, with no job limits and no per user pricing. ServiceM8 runs from free to £269 a month depending on job volume. Both offer a 14 day free trial without a card.
Does Vanly do certificates or compliance forms?
Not today. If Gas Safe or electrical certificates are central to your paperwork, ServiceM8 or Powered Now handle that better. Vanly covers the enquiry, the quote, the invoice and the chasing.
The bottom line
ServiceM8 is excellent software for an iPhone team with a dispatcher and a steady flow of booked work. The pricing is fair, the field app is best in class, and the certificates are properly done.
But it manages work you have already won. If the leak in your week is the enquiry that never got answered and the quote that never went out, no job card fixes that. Try Vanly free for 14 days. No card needed to start.